Apples and Oranges
by The Checkered Lily
Summary: Linnea Quinn wanted to travel. But she'd travelled the world, and it felt so small, now that she'd been so many places. It felt boring, even. Predictable. But with a couple chance encounters, Linnea's travels become a lot more than she could have ever bargained for.


_**Fernweh: feeling homesick for a place you have never been.**_

 **1998**

 **Outskirts of Tromsø** **, Norway**

"Linnea!" She heard her name being called through the woods. "Linnea!" She shook her head. Her mother was worrying too much. When they were home, her mother would always worry about Linnea being left out in the dark, and getting lost in the deep expanse of woods behind her home. She did rather enjoy exploring, and she would admit she had been home after dark before, which according to her mother, 'was unacceptable'. However, she was fine then, and she would be fine now. The sun wouldn't set today, nor would it the next. That was the advantage of the land of the midnight sun. She smiled a small smile, and continued following the bubbling stream, it's smooth, pebble sides covered in moss and wild flowers.

She whistled a light tune as she balanced precariously on a mossy log going across a wider part of the stream. She let of a laugh as she jumped off the end of it on the other side. A small, leafy path was found, and Linnea skipped along it, happy to be somewhere her memories and the past year couldn't follow her.

Soon, she entered a clearing. Along the outer edges of the clearing grew a flower. A flower that she despised. She knelt down beside a patch of it. Linnea looked idly at the flower that was her namesake, and went to pick it, with the intention of throwing it into the stream, which was a stone's trow away from her, when she heard a most unusual noise; a loud, groaning that caused the birds that were singing before to fall silent. Linnea did what any eleven year old would do; she hid behind a tree.

As she peered around her hiding tree, she saw something that was even more unusual; a blue box, a blue box that hadn't been there moments before, it's doors opening to reveal two people; a man and woman. The man was fairly tall and skinny, while the blonde beside him almost radiated the midnight sun itself, her face full of smiles, until she looked to the sky, which caused her smile to fall, and she looked back to the man, her face scrunching up into disappointment.

"What happened to the red sky we were supposed to see, Doctor?"

"Ah..." The man beside her trailed off. He took out a small, metal device, which whirred as he waved it around him. "It's save to say this isn't where I meant to go..."

"Safe to say? That's what you always say! Where are we?"

"Somewhere." Linnea spoke up from behind the tree. In the little interaction she had seen between the two of them, her gut told her that neither of them would cause her harm. In her short, eleven years of live, Linnea had learned to trust her gut, as it had always served her well.

The two people looked sharply in her direction as she slowly edged forward from her hiding place.

"Which somewhere?" The man wearing to pin-stripped suit asked.

"Tromsø. Or at least outside of it." Linnea guessed that being in a cabin out in the forest probably meant they weren't exactly in town.

"Tromsø? Where's that?" The beautiful blonde turned to the man, and a questioning - and slightly judging - look on her face.

"Norway."

"Norway! Doctor, why are we still on Earth?" the blonde asked sharply, her cockney accent rearing it's head. "We are supposed to be at a party on Alseti Prime!" Linnea had no idea what the blonde woman had just said, but it did in fact look like she was dressed for a party; her hair was in an elegant style, and she wore simple, but stunning, purple cocktail dress.

"It should be Alseti Prime!" He said, pulling at his brown hair. He lowered his hands. "I guess the coordinates were slightly off."

"Slightly?" The blonde accused.

"Linnea!" Her mother interrupted, her voice almost imperceptible in the forest. But the man's ears twitched. He turned to face the small, silvery haired girl.

"Linnea? Is that your name?" He asked, kneeling down to face level with her. He expected her to back away, but she stood firm, and looked at him with her bewitching, cold eyes.

"Unfortunately." She rolled those eyes.

"Why unfortunately?" He questioned.

"I don't like it." She shrugged.

"And why not?" She clicked her tongue in a way that was more adult-like than it was child-like. She didn't like his persistence.

"I just don't." Rather than question the girl, who obviously didn't want to answer him, the man just nodded his head and went onto to the next matter of business.

"Well, Linnea, this may sound like a strange question, but what's the year?"

Linnea raised her fair eyebrows. How would two people, on their way to a party, not know the date? But she decided to indulge them. "1998."

"And the wrong year!" The woman exclaimed. She playfully smacked the man's arm, who let out an equally playful glare. Linnea watched their interactions, and shook her head. _Adults_. Still shaking her head, she turned to a different subject.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did that blue box get there?" She asked, nodding to hard-to-miss dark coloured box that took up the center of the small clearing that the two had come out of. It looked rather small for the both of them to fit inside, and Linnea, for all of her intelligence, hadn't the slightest idea as to how the box had gotten there. "There was such a strange noise, and when I looked from behind the tree again, there it was.

"Oh, well, it's my ship."

"Your ship?" She repeated. A blue box that had the words 'Police Call Box' written on it? She'd never seen a ship like that. "Yeah, right." She told him as she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. The blonde woman shook her head with laughter at the man's expense, who frowned at the two of them.

"I like you." She said, still laughing. She walked up the Linnea, and offered her hand. "Rose. Rose Tyler. Nice to meet you."

Linnea eyed the hand with questioning eyes, before taking it lightly. "Linnea Quinn."

"I like that name, Linnea. What does it mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything. It's just the name for the flower over there." She nodded to where a patch of linnea were growing. Rose noticed the girl looked at them with hateful eyes.

"Do you not like them or something?"

"Not really, no."

"Why not? They're - " Rose started, giving the small girl a reassuring smile, before being interrupted.

"LINNEA QUINN." She heard her mother's voice, which was much closer than it previously was. She gulped; her mother wouldn't be happy with her. Her eyes widened.

"I have to - "

"Go?" The man finished for her.

"Go on, go back to you mum." Rose said. "Don't mind us." Linnea looked at her. She was nice. Too bad there weren't many people like Rose back home that she'd met; it could do with some more like her.

Linnea, after waving turned around, and stared going to her mother, whose voice was getting ever closer.

"Oh, and Linnea?" The man asked. Hearing her name, she spun around on the spot, piercing him with her cold eyes, taking him aback for an infinitely small moment. "I'm the Doctor." She cocked her head to one side and gave him an inquisitive look. After a moment, it was obvious that she hadn't found what she had been looking for. She simply nodded her farewell to the two strangers, and soon disappeared in the undergrowth of the Norwegian forest.

* * *

 **2009**

 **London, UK**

"I don't know, but everything just feels so boring now."

" _Boring? You travel the world for your job. How can anything feel boring?"_ The last bit crackled through the phone. Quinn bit her lip and shook her head.

"Okay, maybe boring isn't the right word; small is. Everything just seems so small. And," she said with a small, sad smile, "no one takes twenty year old girls seriously, no matter what their credentials are."

" _That's no true. I'm sure-_ "

"Yesterday, the COO of the joining company asked me to go get him coffee. When his PA was right there. Nowhere in my job description does it say I have to get coffee." Through the glass in her office, she saw the senior members of the cooperation she worked for gathering in the meeting room, meaning it was time for her to join them as well.

"Hey, Evie, I have to go. Satan's cabinet is assembling."

" _Okay. See you next week? You are coming home, right?_ "

"I should be, unless something goes up in flames. Again."

" _I'm sure it won't. See you next week, Quinn._ "

"Bye." She pressed the 'end call' button quickly, and straightened her dress before grabbing her papers and joining the her bosses. As she reached the glass door to the room, however she was stopped by one of the senior executives of the cooperation, Mr. Adam Jeffery. She smiled brightly at him, despite her strong dislike of the elderly man.

"Ms. Quinn," he began in a fairly quite voice, which she knew could be loud and obnoxious at any moment, "as I was coming from my office, I noticed two people at reception. But the receptionist is on break for the next half hour. Would you mind dealing with it, dear?' The old man asked. She kept up her false, bright smile, and nodded, and immediately turned her heel, and walked to the reception desk, where there were indeed, two people waiting. A man and woman. The was smartly dressed in business attire. The man was wearing a pin-stripe suit that Quinn found oddly familiar. But she ignored that as she greeted them.

"Hello." She said, cheerily showing her white teeth. "How can I help you today?"

"Ah. We're a bit late, you see. Caught up in traffic."

"Late to what, if I might ask?"

"The meeting put on by the She Corp." Odd, he sounded English, but she'd never seen him here before, and there was only one other English speaking corporation who was privy to that day's meeting, and they were American. But still, she was polite.

"Can I have your names please?" She readied the system, which was easy, considering the receptionist had left her desktop running and unlocked, which she wasn't actually supposed to do. In her annoyance, she let out a sharp breath, which wasn't missed by the man.

"John Smith and Donna Noble, with the Noble-Smith Corporation." She had never, in all her time here, heard of that corporation. But she gave him the benefit of the doubt; she really did. But when she input the search on the list of attendees for that day's meeting, neither of their names were registered.

"I'm sorry, but neither of those names are registered with any of the corporations here."

"Well," the man patted his pockets, and produced a black leather wallet, "this should clear things up." He sounded quite certain as he said this, but Quinn doubted anything he could show her in his wallet would make it acceptable to join the day's meeting. She was right.

"Ah, I'm sorry," she said, holding up the stark white interior of the wallet, "but seeing as that's a blank sheet of paper, I won't be able to admit you to today's meeting." She said simply as she handed it back to the dumbfounded 'John Smith'. "So, you can either leave, or I can call security, who I'm sure would be happy to show the way out." The man looked like he wanted to argue, but after several moments of an intense, silent argument with his partner, he walked to the elevator, his partner in tow. Quinn watched as the doors closed, and she picked up parts of their words, such as 'how did she not see it'. She rolled her eyes characteristically, and phoned security to let them know of the incoming visitors who would most likely need to be escorted out.

After that was taken care of, she quickly walked back to the conference room.

"Ms. Quinn, nice of you to join us." Mr. Jeffery said with an exasperated tone in his voice. Her internal mantra of calm was used in that moment, otherwise, she would have reminded him that it was he himself who had asked her to take care of the unexpected visitors. She simply smiled as warm of a smile as she could muster, and apologized for keeping them waiting. One of the things she had learned with this job was to reflect a happy, calm, polite, exterior. Because no matter if her bosses - or anyone else for that matter - was in the wrong, she could never tell them that.

She sat down, and started organizing her papers again as the meeting began. As was expected of her, she passed out documents to each party, detailing in their mother tongue what was on the day's agenda. She sat down again, and prepared herself for a several hour digital demonstration as to why each corporation in the room should fund her corporation's business venture. And to be quite honest, it was an incredibly interesting venture; it had to do with the mining of comets. But with Mr. Jeffery heading the presentation, she knew it was good she had her coffee that morning. Otherwise, she would have been out like a light.

Several minutes into a cost-benefit analysis, the glass doors behind her burst open. She swiveled her chair to find the two visitors from before, whom she had specifically told security to remove from the building. But then again, she had never seen the security here walk further than the coffee machine and the donuts. She imperceptibly shook her head, which the man seemed to catch, and he mouthed 'sorry' at her.

"Hello!" The man began, taking out the same leather wallet he had given to Quinn earlier. "John Smith." He gestured to himself. "Donna Noble." He pointed to his partner, who waved. "We're with the Space Aircraft Association, and afraid we need to see the specs for your comet mining operation!"

Mr. Jeffery hissed from across the table, "Ms. Quinn! I thought you saw to them!"

"I did." She said calmly, in a low voice. "Security was supposed to see them out of the building." He narrowed his eyed at her, before trying to put a pleasant expression on his face, which looked more akin to a rat 'smiling' than anything else.

"Inspector. How nice to see you." Mr. Jeffery started, trying to smile, but failing, seeing as to Quinn, it looked more like a grimace. "I'm afraid we weren't expecting you until the week after next."

"Surprise inspection!" He said enthusiastically, putting his 'ID' away - which still looked blank to Quinn - away. All of the others at the table could see something she couldn't, which made her fearfully think for a moment that there was something wrong with her, and she had sent someone she wasn't supposed to, away! But then she remembered that the two had introduced themselves as part of the Noble-Smith Corporation, which they were not presenting themselves as now. But she saw no need to tell Mr. Jeffrey that. He did hate it so when she interrupted him. So, like any other good employee, she sat back and watched the professionals work. _The plot is truly thickening._

"We do like to that occasionally." John Smith said. "It insures that requirements and standards are met."

"Of course. I'm Adam Jeffrey, of ADJ Aeronautics. This is Hebing Wu, of She Corporation." A quiet man beside him bowed his head. "Although, I would like to know how you knew about this meeting. These plans haven't been given to the SAA yet."

"Oh," John Smith said, looking briefly at Mr. Jeffery's PA, Mr. Jeffery following his line of vision, and looking a tinge red, Quinn thought, "we have our sources." The side of her mouth quirked a bit before she smoothed out her features again.

"So, let's see some of these designs, then!" He said, clapping his hands together. Mr. Jeffery's PA, who Quinn vaguely knew as Robert, quickly found a seat for John Smith. Donna Noble gave him a look saying, 'where's mine?'. Robert soon rectified that with another swivel chair.

"You know, Humans don't fully achieve ionic for another decade. So, I wonder, how did you lot get it? Because from the look of these plans," he said, looking over Quinn's shoulder onto her own copies, "you'll have it up and running in no time. Except with one fatal flaw."

"Humans, Mr. Smith? I'm afraid I don't follow." Mr. Jeffrey had an odd look on his face, and Quinn didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit. "And fatal flaw?" He continued. "I don't know what you're talking about."

John Smith stood, and took out a small, cylindrical device, and Quinn's ears were met with an ever so familiar humming. He shook the device - interrupting Quinn's mental search as to where she'd heard that noise before - and then looked at the side of it, his mouth forming a thin line.

"Please, Adam, let's not play games. What are you doing on Earth?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"I think you do. You see, to the average human, these look like manned probe launch capable ships. But they aren't, not really. Mr. Wu," he looked to the quiet man, "do you know what this?"

Mr. Wu looked at the pieces in front of him, giving the probes a through reading. He looked up to John Smith. "They are what you have just described."

"Look again. Look at the fuel converter. I've never seen that sort of configuration needing uranium isotopes before, have you?"

"No," Mr. Wu admitted, "I haven't."

"There's a logical explanation for that." Mr. Jeffrey began. At his hairline, Quinn could see droplets of sweat forming. Now, Quinn was no expert on lying, but it looked like Mr. Jeffrey was lying. The plot thickens.

"It's just the fuel until the probe reaches orbit, where it switches to ionic propulsion."

"That would be fine, except for ionic propulsion, xenon is needed, not uranium."

Mr. Wu let out a small sound. "If the probe were going to switch to ionic propulsion when it hit orbit, it - it -"

"Would explode." John Smith finished, which a grim look on his face. "And with this amount of uranium, it would cause an incredible amount of a nuclear fallout, seeing as the engine is nuclear powered." He spun around to Mr. Jeffrey, who was edging towards the door. "So, Mr. Jeffrey, I don't believe the SAA will agree with your design."

Mr. Jeffrey let out an unsettling hiss. He slowly turned around to face John Smith.

"Just. Who. Are. You." He said every word sharply and dangerously. If Quinn didn't like the look on his face before, now she was horrified of it. The skin was stretched oddly, and around the eyes, it almost look like - no, it couldn't be, could it? But it was. Around his eyes, to the left of his forehead, his hairline; well, they were all showing some sort of weird purple, skin, almost. Mr. Jeffrey made things even worse when he began to itch his face, and the normal skin just, fell off. Quinn stared i disbelief at the developments.

"The Doctor." Another familiar chord struck Quinn. "And I'm telling you to stop now." He said just as sharply, and just as dangerously as Mr. Jeffrey had.

"The Doctor?" Mr. Jeffrey scoffed. "The Doctor is a fairy tale!"

"Then I guess a fairy tale had come to life then, hasn't it?" His companion shuffled to the side, behind Mr Jeffrey, and in front of the glass door. Quinn wasn't quite sure what she was doing.

"So, I'll tell you again, stop what your doing. Now. This planet and it's people are under my protection."

"And what will you do, Doctor? Talk me to death. Your threats and promises mean nothing to me or my people."

"They should, because I've just given you your only warning." And in an instant, Mr. Jeffrey was gone. Quinn didn't see John Sm- the Doctor, do anything. It was like he had evaporated in smoke. Quinn quickly looked around the table, and saw the majority of the people around it follow suit, save for Mr. Wu, any foreign associates and Robert, the later fainting. The room was quite, and a shell shocked Quinn stood slowly to walk out of the room, before being stopped by the Doctor.

"Why didn't you go with them?" The Doctor asked roughly. It took a moment for her to understand what he was insinuating.

"You think - You think -" In her incredible disbelief only one full question popped out of her mouth. "You think I'm _purple_?"

"No, you are not purple." He confirmed with his silver device. "So," he lightened up considerably, and lost the threatening look, and actually gave her a smile, which she couldn't return. "Why is Mr. Wu here, so important?"

"Uh..." She whacked her brain for a moment, trying to remember why he was so important. _Oh, that's why_. "Mr. Wu is the CEO of the She Corporation." He looked bored. "Which you know, obviously. But She Corporation is the largest Aeronautics builder and designer in the world. It has the backing of the Chinese government. So, if you have them on board for a project, you're guaranteed any resources you need. Literally anything. Even illegal radioactive isotopes, because who would say no to progress?" She finished. The Doctor nodded his head.

"Ah. Thank you..." He searched for a name, but realized she hadn't given him one.

"Quinn."

"Quinn what?"

"Quinn is my last name."

"What's your first name, then?"

"I go by my last name. My first name doesn't matter."

He shrugged, not caring enough at the moment to push further. "Donna!" He called. The redheaded woman turned around from her passing out cups of water to the stunned business men.

"What?" was her reply.

"We need to track them." The woman sighed dramatically before walking through the door.

"Wait, if your 'name'," Quinn used air quotes, "is the Doctor, does that mean you, Donna Noble," she turned to the woman, "have a funny name like the Magician or something?"

"Why would I have a name like that? That's rubbish." Donna's stunning eyes met Quinn's cold, grey ones.

"Then... What about his name?" Quinn gestured to the Doctor. Donna stayed stoic for a moment before laughing. The Doctor grimaced beside her, and gave Quinn a glare, which she just shrugged off.

"Oh, you are too right."

"Time to go." The Doctor said, steering the still laughing Donna around. Quinn didn't understand why the redhead was still laughing, because what she had said hadn't been funny. Had it? Just as they were walking to the elevator, it finally clicked why the Doctor seemed so familiar; she had met him before! All those years ago, in the Norwegian forest.

"Doctor!" She called out to him. He kept walking, so she asked a question.

"Alseti Prime; did you ever make it?" The Doctor's head jerked around, his body following.

"What?" He asked, standing there is disbelief. How did a human know about a planet a galaxy over? Was she closer to her bosses than he had thought? He began walking towards her, in a menacing manner, his eyes growing dark again, but was then stopped again by her question.

"With Rose. Did you ever get to that party you were meant to go to?" He and Rose. Rose. They meant to land on Alseti Prime, where there was a party in full swing, celebrating the solstice. But he'd landed in a Norwegian forest instead. They met a little girl, with cold, calculating grey eyes. Ones exactly like Quinn's. One's that were staring at his own brown ones in a combination of fear and shock.

* * *

 **So, how did I do? Horribly? Not too bad? Please let me know with a review or a PM! I really need and would like feedback of any kind! And if you do like it, favourite and follow it!**


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